jamesemirzianwaldementersoftwareonwikiafandomcom-20200214-history
Thrill Kill
Thrill Kill is an unreleased 1998 fighting video game for the Sony PlayStation. While the technical feat of allowing four players to fight simultaneously in the same room was to be a major selling point, this was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the game's depictions of violence and sexual content. Examples of this content include BDSM and fetishistic costumes and acts, limb dismemberment, and violent special moves with suggestive names such as "Bitch Slap" and "Swallow This". As it was essentially completed before it was cancelled, it is one of the most widely available and easily playable unreleased games ever made. Discs and downloads containing near-final versions of the game are easy to obtain via the internet and are playable on PlayStation emulators and modded consoles. The game is notable for being the first video game to get the extremely-rare Entertainment Software Rating Board "Adults Only" (AO) rating for violence; all prior AO ratings had been for sexual content. History Thrill Kill was developed in the late 1990s for the Sony PlayStation by Paradox Development, later Midway Studios - Los Angeles. There was much hype surrounding the game, billed as the new Mortal Kombat, and expectations were high in the gaming community. The publisher was to be Virgin Interactive, but in the summer of 1998 the North American operations of Virgin Interactive were acquired by Electronic Arts as part of their buyout of the developer Westwood Studios, whom Virgin Interactive also owned. This led to EA buying the publishing rights to the game. By this point Thrill Kill had already finished development in entirety. A few weeks before shipping, the game's release was scrapped by Electronic Arts because they didn't want to "publish such a senselessly violent game", as they felt that it would harm their image. They also stated that they deemed the game so offensive that they would not even attempt to sell the game nor to have it released by another publisher. Later, former employees that had worked on the game released the full game to the group T@STY who completed it before releasing it onto the internet along with various beta versions and bootlegs of the game. These flooded the market and were still seen by a large share of its original intended audience nevertheless. All files are still widely available through filesharing, and playable through emulators. Gameplay Gameplay consisted of a closed 3D room where up to four opponents would fight to the death, and proceed to finish each other off with Thrill Kills, much like the fatalities of Mortal Kombat. Every attack made would result in a character's bloodlust to rise. Instead of the usual life bar, characters built up a "kill meter". Once this meter was full, and therefore bloodlust at its strongest, a player's character would be electrocuted to give them superhuman strength enabling a Thrill Kill move to brutally slay an opponent, depending on what button was pressed upon grabbing someone. Characters Belladonna A housewife and librarian from Savannah, Georgia, who, after discovering that her husband was having an affair with her sister, snapped and transformed into a deadly dominatrix, murdering them both. She is armed with an electric cattle prod. She died after committing suicide by electrocuting herself with her cattle prod while taking a bath, which was reported as being "accidental". She is the most sexually themed character of the game, and, consequentially, was considerably altered in the censored version; her orgasm-like moans were replaced with Violet's giggle, and her third Thrill Kill was removed, in which she appears to perform oral sex on her opponent, only for the camera to reveal that she is merely tickling their foot with a feather. In her ending she is preparing to murder her husband as he comes home. Cleetus A murderous redneck cannibal from Kentucky who fights with a severed leg of one of his past victims. He starved to death after contracting a tapeworm infestation. Aside from Belladonna, he is the only other character who was noticeably changed in the censored version of the game; his taunt and win pose, in which he bites into the severed leg he carries, was replaced from having blood spraying out of it and the sound effect of ripping flesh to him saying "yummy", with the blood and sound effect removed. His ending is when the health inspector inspects his slaughterhouse and gives an f for all of the inspection until Cleetus throws him in the machine and the machine tears the health inspector to pieces. Cleetus daydreams of his commercial of selling the best meat. Dr. Faustus A deranged plastic surgeon from Los Angeles, California, who intentionally disfigured many of his patients. He is armed with a scalpel and has a set of metal "jaws" attached to his own face that resembles a bear trap, which he also uses to attack with. He died from an infection caused by the grafting of said contraption onto his face. In his ending, he continues disfiguring and/or murdering his patients. The Imp A violent midget government employee with a Napoleon complex from Albany, New York, who is supported by stilts. He died from complications after amputating both his legs to replace them with the stilts. His ending is that he dreams of being President. Mammoth A gigantic, feral, ape-like creature who was previously a human postal worker from Covington, Indiana, nicknamed "Mammoth" due to his large size. After he was fired from his job, he flew into a rage and killed many of his colleagues and customers in a bloody rampage. He died from committing suicide afterwards by shooting himself. His history may be a reference to the term 'Going Postal', which was a term derived from a series of incidents from 1983 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public in acts of mass murder. In his ending he kills an old lady and her dog and stuffs their corpses in the mail box. Oddball An FBI criminal profiler from Belfast, Maine, who, after a long time of tracking serial killers, was driven insane and became one himself. His costumes feature him bound in straitjackets, having his arms tied behind his back, or amputated altogether, and so he relies on using his head, torso and legs to attack. He died after being gunned down by his protégé. His ending is that his insanity continues and he goes back to being criminally insane. Tormentor A sadistic vigilante judge from Phoenix, Arizona, who is armed with a chain. He was executed on the electric chair after being found guilty of acquitting criminals in his court so that he could secretly torture and murder them himself. His ending shows him donning his mask as he is about to torture a criminal. Violet The youngest playable character in the game. A teenage traveling circus contortionist from Austria, who developed a hatred for men after killing a man that attacked her in her dressing room after one of her performances. She died from internal injuries after her spinal cord was ruptured. Her ending is during her performing, a man gets on stage and she kills him in front of everyone. The Gimp Unlockable "training dummy" only available in Practice mode. He is unlocked by successfully following all the instructions to execute moves in training mode for all characters. Like his name suggests, he is a masochistic gimp. He is unplayable. Cain One of the earlier unlockable sub-bosses. A pyromaniac covered in flames, who has the ability to conjure fire. Probable death could be that Cain died by being burned down while he was still alive. His ending is he sets himself on fire again. Judas One of the later unlockable sub-bosses. Deformed conjoined twins at the sternum, without any legs. One of them simply "walks" on their hands while the other fights. Probable cause of death could be complications from their deformity. His ending is where he's reborn and his mother died. Marukka The final unlockable character and final boss of the game in one player mode. A demonic female deity from Hell who was responsible for the organization of the tournament. She cannot be played in Arcade mode. Plot Ten damned souls have died and descended into Hell. This modern-day Hell is based on the real world of today's deviants. The characters are the physical manifestations of their mental illnesses or the evil hidden within their mortal selves. Each character has been a murderer, usually after their said illness/evil inner self. Marukka, the Goddess of Secrets, is bored of her usual routine and decides that it would be entertaining to pit all of the characters against one another in a fighting tournament with the prize being reincarnation. Each character is battling for nothing more than self-preservation and the hope of being reborn. Development and Cancellation The controversy surrounding the game raised the interest of Thrill Kill in the gaming community greatly, helping bootleg copies of the game to become very common. In their September 2004 issue, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine cited Thrill Kill as one of the most overrated cancelled games, stating "It got lots of hype. But it really sucked, too." The Thrill Kill engine was later used in numerous other games. It was used to make Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style (released on October 31, 1999 by Activision), a game based on the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. The Thrill Kill engine was later used in two-player form for X-Men: Mutant Academy (released on July 11, 2000 by Activision), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (released on September 17, 2001 by Activision) and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Arena (released on November 30, 2000 by Mattel Interactive). In 2009, Game Informer ranked Thrill Kill tenth on a list of "The Top Ten Games That Almost Were". In 2011, GamePro ranked The Imp fourteenth on a list of "The 50 Best Fighting Game Characters Ever". Music California-based industrial band, Contagion, recorded numerous songs and an entire score for the game (which later ended up on their album Infectant). See also *Lists of the cancellation PS1 game titles *Video game controversies Reception James Emirzian Waldementer Software Co. discussion that the one of the famously unreleased PS1 game titles of Thrill Kill, It got scored of (8.7/10) that meddling about average development and publisher were "disliked about the video game violent" It is only playable of beta version that completion game project. Thrill Kill numbered of 87 on a lists is "120 Games That Rushed Development And Cancellation Were Discovered" Blue Niuxlius Entertainment, Inc. met the game reviewing and discussion that unreleased PS1 game titles about "Disliked about the video game violent" these the publisher are not able to released titled of PS1, It got about average high scored of (8.5/10) and stars was (4.3/5). Thrill Kill is the lists numbered of 98 on a lists is "120 Games That Cancellation Was Discovered Playable" *See the game reviews Development Crew *See the article of Thrill Kill Development Crew External Links *IGN Thrill Kill Preview